Bored
by GrinGrin
Summary: Sokka had an annoying tendency to get very bored, very fast. What is he to do after the war, when everything he does bored him? Is there something, or someone that can relieve him?


_I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender._

**Bored**

He'd met many people after the war who all said how lucky he was, how blessed. Yeah. Tell that to his dead girlfriend-turned-Moon-Spirit. Tell it to his decimated home. Tell it to the thousands of people he'd seen but been unable to help. Tell it to his traitorous mind.

You see, that was the thing. His mind. It was what set him apart from Aang and Katara and Toph and even Zuko. They were warriors. He was a soldier. They could fight, but he could plan. They could defeat entire armies, he could plot the downfall of entire nations. They led with strength, he with cunning.

It was a horrible thing to say, but on some days he felt he had more in common with Azula than his own sister.

Today had been one of those days. Where he couldn't sleep. Thought upon thought upon thought running through his mind, seemingly without end. It was both his blessing and his curse. It was what made him perhaps the most sought-after advisor in the world. And all he wanted to do was find something to tire out even his mind, so he could finally get some spirits-damned rest.

It was nights like this that made him miss the war, as horrible as it was to say. Then he had something to preoccupy him, at least. A challenge.

Where was the challenge in organising treaties and relief efforts where he once had to manage four children seeking to overthrow a nation that basically controlled the known world? He had succeeded then. In comparison everything else was so simple it drove him to tears.

Spirits. The only time he slept well after the war was when Azula had been rescued by Nation loyalists. It had been a wonderful time, though many would look at him in shock for expressing such an idea.

* * *

Aang was preoccupied with identifying which of the many Airbender descendants actually inherited the gift.

His sister was petitioning in the North for support in the South.

Zuko was entertaining far too many diplomats.

Toph was wandering the world, doing whatever she felt like.

Which essentially left only him to oppose Azula. Oh, he had advisors and generals and, again, far too many diplomats _trying_ to help, but they couldn't keep up. In the first month he'd let them do as they pleased and they had lost entire swathes of land.

He had sighed, stood up from his dinner and went to the command tent. No-one had been allowed to enter.

Three hours later he had come back out, sat down and ordered the cook to give him more meat.

His generals had found a map of the Fire Nation, scribbled on with many borderline-illegible notes.

They had been orders. Defend here, feint there, flank this forest. Collapse this mine, burn that bridge, plant mines in this canyon. Annex this town, garrison that lone outpost, slaughter the herds in that hamlet.

It made no sense, not at first. But as they bickered among themselves, they could see some sense in the apparent madness. But only for some. It took them an embarrassing amount of time to realise they were out of their depth. But they did follow through with them eventually.

_(If that happened after they spoke to the new Fire Lord? After Zuko had given them a _look_ that even his wife would have been envious of? With strict orders to do as the 'idiot said, he actually knows what he's doing'? What did it matter?)_

* * *

It had been a rout. He had anticipated most of Azula's moves, but not all of them. But what were those losses when he was now the one with the world's resources at his beck and call?

It had taken them three months to finally corner Azula.

A runner had barged into the tent, told the council that some watcher had seen Azula leave the besieged fortress through a side passage and then he promptly fainted due to not realizing breathing was important.

Sokka had stood up, drained his cup and left atop an ostrich-horse.

* * *

He had come back 5 hours later, ostrich-horse in tow. But what truly amazed everyone who saw it happen, was the fact that Azula herself was on the ostrich horse, Sokka walking alongside. The soldiers would, to a man, insist that they heard the two talking, as if without a care in the world, about the innate advantages and disadvantages of ostrich-horses, komodo-rhinos and mongoose-dragons.

It was a surreal sight, but one his men had eventually accepted. He had led a group of what started as three children to overthrow a nation that was on the cusp of controlling the world. What was the capture of one woman in the face of that?

* * *

"Been one of those days?"

"Yhep."

"Paisho?"

He paused, thinking. Looked up and smirked. Golden eyes met his own, and a smirk to match his own rose on ruby lips.

The palace-wing-turned-prison echoed with the clack of moving tiles.

Challenges weren't always that hard to come by, if one had the right partner.

* * *

AN: Okay, confession time. I adore Sokkla. They mesh so wonderfully.

Not much else to say, except that Sokka's got huge cajones. How did he convince Azula? Rode up to her, unarmed, and talked her down. If he died, Aang would essentially go nuclear until she died as well. If he didn't he'd keep poking holes in her arguments that she could retake the throne until she relented.

So yeah. Sokka basically annoyed Azula so much, she surrendered. Fun times.

Read, enjoy and review.

~GrinGrin

Written: 15/06/2014

Posted: 16/06/2014


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